Cat's Play
by Rhinestone99
Summary: One shot of "The Last Legend" (currently in working progress) A story of how Link met a young slave girl from the southern tribes.


**Author's Note: **

**Excerpt from my story (takes place after all the games, hence "The Last Legend" I'm just going to warn readers ahead of time that there will be dozens of OC's) **

** I probably shouldn't post this yet, but... Yah, I guess ****spoiler warning****, but I don't think you guys would understand what's going on anyways. *shrug* Welp, enjoy! **

**I edited it, so it should be better. :) **

The two tussled in a whirl of knifes and sword before finally he managed to catch Mr. Shady's wrists and pin him down. Link felt his heart pounding in his ribcage. Those knifes had come way too close to some his vitals.

_Way_ too close.

He managed a smirk and leered down triumphantly at Mr. Shady. The man stared back coolly with large, black; almost cat-like eyes.

Goddess, those eyes... they put him off edge. (and was it just him or were those the biggest eyelashes he'd ever seen?).

"So...er..." He started to say something smart, but he couldn't move. If he did, he'd lose any advantage he had. Shady here had at least 100 pounds on him, which meant any slack would likely result in a deadly blow. He was just as pinned as Shady.

Dang, stalemate.

"_Gred march'ee tu dohagmah_." A soft voice came from the man. He froze with how beautiful it was, even through the garbled language.

It was a girl's voice. A beautiful _girl's_ voice.

_Mr... Mrs. _Shady, still stared at him with those black pools, fearlessly.

Link gaped like a grounded fish.

Her eyes creased in what he assumed must be a smile under the garb, and he suddenly found himself flat on his back, with a knife pressed against his throat.

Farore.

She pressed down on him and breathed, "_March'ee tu dohagmah gred. Echnarch za_." Now she sounded uncannily like Link.

The two were so close he could see those large, dark eyes practically sparkle with feline mischief, and if she was the cat, then by default, he had to be the mouse. He wasn't a particular fan of this role himself. Link twisted and just barely managed to get his neck away from that knife, but in a flash of steel his arm suddenly felt like it had fallen the wrath of an angry wolfos. Link grunted loudly at the sudden, sharp pain while the woman simply watched as she raked deep into his flesh.

_Owwww ow ow...!_

Oh, she was so paying for that if he made it through this. Which begs the question, — why was he still alive?

Mrs. Shady — skip that, he'd just call her Kitty now — could've just made a quick detour with that last rake to his neck, or even slit his throat earlier. This was a Du' Chulli, they killed on sight unless... The image of the village woman's remains surfaced unwillingly to the front of his mind.

Torture.

Unless he wanted to be Kitty's new plaything, he needed to move. He kicked up to, in theory, take his opponent unawares. Then while Kitty was coiled over, he would scoot, but she spun around behind him and kicked his head.

Really. Hard.

The dark forest swelled and spun for a moment; jarring, throbbing pain.

Reoriented, he found her face directly in his, so close that their noses practically touched, and he jerked back, (admittingly not the smartest thing he's ever done) head cracking against the ground. Apparently Du' Chulli don't believe in personal space. Kitty ignored his reaction and whispered those words again, impatiently.

Link pressed back against the ground in an attempt to distance himself from her, his head throbbing. Her eyes narrowed and she looked ready to slap him, but something stopped her. He sensed her stiffen, and without warning she leapt back to her feet into a guarded stance. He took the opportunity to scramble off the ground and dive for the first gleam of silver his blurred vision caught. He grasped his sword, happy to have it back, and eyes narrowed in suspicion and curiosity he looked for whatever had been his savior. His eyes widened.

Careen, in all her candor, leaned as casually as one possibly could against a tree, eyes twinkling and lips curled into that infamous, wise-cracking smirk.

Dang that woman. He hated how she always had to turn up at the last possible second, and then put on a show like this.

Din.

What's more, Careen had a particularly dangerous look in her eyes directed at Kitty. Well that was never a good sign. For reasons he could not explain, he found himself between the wrath of his captain and the Du' Chillan _assassin_.

Wait, what?

"You certainly have a way for making odd friends." Careen said blithely as she raised an eyebrow and, of course, smirked. She didn't seem to be looking at him though. Link turned to the direction she was pointed. "You may want to watch your back, kid." He heard her call cheerfully — and belatedly. She did that on purpose!

He was mid-spin when he felt a long, strong arm swing around his neck and something sharp cut the skin under his chin. He choked and despite his best efforts to remain armed, a quick squeeze of his wrist from Kitty and the handle popped right out of his desperate grip; sending his beloved sword crashing to the floor. He gasped, coming out more of a choke as his lungs began burning for air.

He cursed bitterly. _I'm going to _kill_ myself for this. _

Kitty felt tense against him, and, even scared? All Link knew was that this girl had one giant tree trunk arm around his neck, and a knife on his throat. Kitty jerked back, taking his body with her, startled, he grunted. She shouting something in what he assumed to be Du' Chillan.

"Stay back, or I'll gut him!"

That's what he assumed she said anyway. He didn't speak Du'Chillan.

Both the girl and himself were taken aback when Careen responded evenly, "_Carsh thoa'ul markenac_..." and he was lost. Was it just him or did Careen look incredibly serious? Again, _weird_.

Kitty began speaking in a more rapid, yet cautious session than before. He struggled weakly in the girl's grip, having lost a good amount of oxygen, though not enough to suffocate him. Likely the intention. In response to resistance the long arm closed his airway—painfully. Link, not exactly surprised, gritted his teeth and froze.

Message received.

Now if she could please loosen up before he died. Thankfully, the silent plea was heard. The grip loosened slightly; and Link caught a slightly narrowed glance from the Captain that clearly said, "You're-In-Enough-Trouble-As-Is-Just-Let-Me-(enter profanity of choice)-Take-Care-Of-It.

And she went back to speaking as if he wasn't even there. Link gritted his teeth and stared at the ground shamefully.

Stupid.

Why did he do that?

He turned his back on the enemy. Embarrassing.

He really was a moron, and Careen was so _killing_ him for getting into a captive situation.

Having nothing better to do, he tried to make out what they were saying.

Farore, why did he never learn any Du'Chillan?

Well, whatever they were saying, Careen didn't look very happy about it, and her tone had taken a rather dangerous route. When they had finished, the elder narrowed her eyes and looked at him.

"She says she wants help," The Captain crossed her arms and he caught the faintest trace of her one-sided smirk. "She apologizes for stabbing you, kicking, choking, pounding, etcedra," Careen looked content with going on, but for the sake of time continued, "but she was afraid you would try to kill her before she got her point across."

So Kitty wasn't trying to kill him. Much as he'd like to say he could have still handled her himself...

"Great." He breathed sarcastically, squirming in the assassin's grip unconsciously. "Did you tell her to let me go, by chance?"

Careen bared her teeth at him in a wide smile, then said something to the girl.

"_Et Maru-"_ bla, bla, something-or-another.

The arm around his neck slightly tightened, and then with the briefest hesitation she released him. He felt his legs give out beneath him, and the half-suffocated boy fell hands and knees to the ground, gasping in sweet, glorious air. He quickly tried to stand, eager to get off the ground and try to regain some dignity, but was surprised by a dark hand grabbing his arm. He jerked his head up to meet two big, dark, long-lashed eyes for a moment, filled with some enigmatic emotion he couldn't name, and reminding himself this person just tried to kill him, he jerked away.

Predictably, he lost his balance. She caught him again, this time her eyes creased and filled with a rather less so mysterious emotion of amusement. She yanked him to his feet before he could resist. He found himself flustered.

"Thanks..." he muttered suspiciously. Her eyes stared back at him blankly and he realized that she probably didn't understand anyway. He mentally shrugged it off and looked distractedly for his sword. He was surprised when he didn't see it.

Where the heck did that thing go?

He scanned the forest floor over again, becoming increasingly panicked. It had to have fallen right here! Where else could it have... He narrowed his eyes and glowered at the girl.

"All right, where are you hiding my sword?" He snapped. She tilted her head, questioning his tone no doubt. "Swoor - dah." He said irritably, making a slicing gesture with an imaginary sword.

Careen surprised him (having forgotten she was even there in the first place) by walking over and saying coolly, "Take the hood off, sweetheart, and stop pretending that you can't speak plain Hylian."

He gaped at Careen for a second, and then back at the girl.

Said Kitty narrowed her eyes, and he suspected that Careen might actually kill her after all, but with a huff the Du'Chillan tore the hood off, confirming Careen's previous statement and giving him another nasty shock. With the hood fully removed the dim forest light revealed a beauty like none he'd ever seen.

Her hair was what caught his attention first, bright, crimson orange. Like the setting sun. It was wild too, and very short. It swirled in tight spirals along her skull and gleamed oddly in the moonlight. The second shock — her skin was dark. Not deep-tan-on-the-beach dark, but pure, concentrated black. She practically blended in with the forest without her camouflage drapes. She carried herself in a cautious, albeit no timid way, (He doubted this girl could look timid in any way considering she was like nine feet tall and probably knew a thousand different ways to kill him) and her expression seemed to be set in a permanent icy, calculating look that fit the regality of her features perfectly.

Just one thing...she was in fact, Gerudu, not Du'Chillan, unless her fiery hair said any different. Du'Chillan's were dark, but not that dark.

He stared numbly and tried to get over the bewitching features of the woman. She was an enemy...

...Right?

So he tried to tell himself. The image of her neck barely dodging his blade resurfaced and he cringed. He so could've taken her head off right then, but then so could she have taken his. Many times.

Self-defense. No guilt.

Tell that to his stupid head.

Unaware of the inner-battle of emotions going on in the boy's head, the girl slunk up to him and caught him off guard.

"Your swoor-dah, Ek?" She said mockingly, yet completely straight-faced. Creepy Gerudu/Du'Chillan (that was a sweet accent though). He gaped dumbly at the hilt of his blade proffered, the blade-end of the sword held in her simply bandaged hand.

"Why are you holding it like that?" He asked stupidly.

Genius. Freaking genius Link.

It was an honest question though... didn't that - Oh, heck did he know - hurt?

The girl looked down at him coolly, all traces of that feline mischief gone without a trace. He had the distinct impression she was looking straight through him.

He backpedaled, "I...er you're holding it..."

"This way you don't get cut mistakenly. Wielder of blade take responsibility for blade." She said smoothly. He gawked for a second then hastily took the sword and sheathed it.

"I suppose you two lovebirds have _plenty_ of time on your hands, but as for myself, _I_ have business to attend to," Careen said, then narrowing her eyes pointedly at him, currently halfway through an indignant protest, "and certain disciplinary actions to uphold for sheer, blind, _stupidity_."

That shut him up. Kitty still held a firm, indifferent look, but he recognized that twinkle in her eyes. She thought this was funny. Stupid girl. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks and he cast his eyes on the floor and tried to gauge the flow of warm liquid running down his arm — currently bleeding like a stuck pig.

He glared down.

How was it his fault that he found Kitty sneaking in the shadows and rightfully assumed that she was an assassin? How was it his fault that he'd nearly gotten killed for it, trying to defend himself and the camp? And what gave Careen any right to punish him for doing his job, or even give this trained assassin anything less than a good pair of shackles?

"I was only performing my duty, Sir." He said tersely, raising his chin despite the warmth in his cheeks. Careen looked at him with an icy glare worthy of Kitty over here.

"Hmm," She grunted with a cool, disappointed tone before turning to the assassin. Likely he would pay for that later, but he at the moment, he really couldn't care less. He was exhausted, and on the verge of passing out from blood loss.

"What's your name, girl?"

Aforementioned girl balked and her eyes darted away. She looked rather...abashed, actually. As abashed as one can look with a permanent mask of indifference. Careen raised an eyebrow at the response, but he could trace no surprise in the Captain's visage. Careen made a small tisk sound.

"Whatever girl. For now we'll just call you Tammel, I suppose."

**Author's Note:**

**Oh, Link you just love to over-exaggerate things don't you? She's only like, 6' 7.  
XD I adore all these characters...which is why I hurt them so... sigh. Anyone else have a problem of torturing your characters? Their all so happy right now, but... hmm... not all the time. '-_- **

**Let me know how you liked it! **


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